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| Thursday, 28 October 2004 |
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A refreshing change to TV commentary by Richard Dwight Refreshingly welcome it was to hear TV commentator Roshan Abeysinghe's crisp and cryptic retort to Michael Holding's comment on Shoaib Malik being ludicrously run out in the first innings of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at Lahore. Referring to Malik's silly dismissal said Holding, "it's a ridiculous run out", which made Abeysinghe to snap back in response when he said "well Mikey for that matter, every run out is ridiculous". This bespeaks much for Abeysinghe's cricketing knowledge, where he was equal to the occasions with his instinctive individuality coming into play. The game of cricket keeps growing by the weeks and months, from one tour to another, involving visits to different countries and, the TV commentator must ensure that he has an all round knowledge of not only cricket, but of the country he visits and its people. He must be well up with the times and be currently relevant. With a mind of his own, he must be able to objectively make his observations without leaning on hackneyed phrases and hallow stereotyped comments, and swaying as well in the direction of the partner in the box, such an attitude could be grossly misunderstood to being you scratch my back, as I scratch yours", till we meet again at our next assignment and even worse becoming just another repeater the Sinhala radio cricket commentators have yet to come to terms with, a ball by ball commentary over radio. The radio has to do with listeners and not viewers, as in the case of TV and, commentators of cricket will do well to be mindful of this, especially when commentating over radio. Literally a ball by ball commentary over radio simply means, that the radio commentator must keep a track of each ball that is bowled and the players involved. But this was not so for the commentators more often than not went on a tirade of their own, indulging in verbal diahorrea. This, they could do to exhibit their knowledge in between overs or at another program or forum. What the listener wants to know is the progress made by each batsman with their individual scores and the main score, there is no point in stressing the number of overs bowled, for this is a test match and not a limited overs game. The saving grace was Chandrishan Perera, whose English cricket commentary over radio was quite good to be absorbing in contrast. Radio cricket commentators will do well to steer away from speaking of cabbages and kings, that have no relevance, and be spot on, on the ball, for otherwise they could be misunderstood as suffering from some compelled or other. |
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